USEFUL HINTS. 



that it does not is clearly establislied, not only by 

 these experiments, but by the experience of hundreds 

 of practical farmers, who have used salts of ammo- 

 nia, Peruvian guano, &c.; and we feel warranted in 

 concluding from these facts, that ammonia is all used 

 up the iirst year; unless Liebio, or those who agree 

 with him on this point, can bring forward better ar- 

 gument to the contrary, than the simple, unsustained 

 assertion that it is "perfectly impossible." 



Is it not more consistent with the facts of the case 

 to suppose that the ammonia being quite solue, is all 

 taken tip the first year, and that in the growth of 

 wheat, there is, for some purpose or other, a great 

 destruction of ammonial It is well known that 

 plants give off oxygen, and in the absence of light, 

 carbonic acid; why may they not also give ofl" am- 

 monia? Chemists have always had a difhculty in 

 accounting for the manner in which silica is deposited 

 on the straw of the wheat plant. Prof. Way has 

 shown that ammonia and silica in certain double salts, 

 form slightly soluble compounds, and he suggests that 

 in this form the silica and ammonia is taken up into 

 the plant; and that when the silica is deposited, the 

 ammonia evaporates into the air. Our object is not 

 here to decide whether this be so or not; we wish 

 merely to show that Liemg has no right to assume, 

 as he has done, that it is "perfeclly impossible' for 

 plants to take up more ammonia than they con- 

 tain when grown. He would have shown a better 

 spirit, had he met the views of Mk. Lawes and Prof. 

 AVay on this point with some argument, rather than 

 of ignoring them altogether, and reasoning as though 

 nothing had been said in regard to it. 



The whole question appears to us to turn on this 

 very subject, which Lieisiq has entirely overlooked in 

 liis review of Lawes' experiments. If it be true that 

 wheat and the other cereal grasses need for their pro- 

 duction a much larger quantity of ammonia than 

 they contain when grown, and if, on the other hand, 

 turnips, beans, peas, tares, and clover do not, we have 

 at once an explanation of the three gradually devel- 

 oped systems of rotation, which an enlightened expe- 

 rience has proved judicious. We see at once why 

 two grain crops should not follow each other; why 

 ■clover, and peas, and beans, are the best crops to 

 j)recede wheat, and why the turnip, in the Norfolk 

 .■system of British agriculture, is such an excellent 

 ■crop to precede barley. Indeed, we do not know of 

 one solitary well-established fact that is opposed to 

 this view; and surely, if it be correct, nothing can be 

 more important to a correct understanding of ra- 

 tional agriculture. It is true that it points to no rev- 



olution in our present system of culture— and in this 

 respect will be less acceptable to all ultra reformers 

 — but it explains the rationale of the most approved 

 systems of rotation and general farm management, 

 confirms what practical farmers have previously but 

 indistinctly perceived, and urges them to carry cot 

 still further, and by more economical methods, a sys- 

 tem of improved culture they have already com- 

 menced. 



USEFUL HINTS. 



To keep Potatoes in Cellars and Pits from Rot- 

 ting: — ^You must be careful to dry them well at dig- 

 ging time on the barn floor, or other convenient 

 place, for four or six days; then put some of them 

 into the cellar or pit about one foot thick, and strew 

 a little slaked lime over them ; then another foot of 

 potatoes, and another sprinkling of lime, and so op, 

 till all your potatoes have been secured. They will 

 take no harm when packed in this manner, thougb 

 two thousand bushels should be placed in one heap. 



To destroy Thistles or other noxious Weeds, ei- 

 ther ill beds otheru'ise. — Take four pounds of saltpe- 

 tre, grind it fine, add two pounds of sulphur; mix 

 these wilh one barrel of salt. In the spring, when 

 the thistles are two or three inches high, apply this 

 mixture by spreading it over the ground half an inch 

 thick; be sure to cover all the surface of the ground 

 with the mixture, and it would be well to extend it 

 to at least one foot outside of the thistle beds, so 

 that all the roots may be destroyed. Should there 

 be any loose stones on the surface of the ground, 

 they should be picked off. If the weather should 

 prove to be dry for the first and second evenings after 

 the applicatiou has been made, a little water or refuse 

 pickle should be applied with a watering-pot. Should 

 there, by any chance, one or two roots escape the 

 mixture and sprout aflerwardss, or if you have any 

 stray thistles scattered over your farm or lands, take 

 a small phial filled with spirits of turpentine, and de- 

 posit one drop upon the top of the thistle; this will 

 infallibly destroy it. The mixture of saltpetre, etc., 

 will enrich the soil too much for grain crops for a 

 season or two. The first planted, should be onions, 

 potatoes, or turnips, to be followed by corn or other 

 grain crops. It would be best to leave the ground 

 undisturbed till late in the fall; then plow it for 

 spring crops. 



Food for Chickens. — Boiled potatoes mixed with 

 coarse Indian meal, are, perhaps, the best food for 

 fattening poultry. For laying hens, meat is necessa- 



